Great recipes for any time, especially for Derby!

Trackside favorites from the Courier kitchen

• Benedictine
• Hot Brown sandwiches
• Beer cheese
• Mint julep for one • Boil-baked country ham
• Cheesy grits casserole
• Hart County burgoo
• Horse race pie



Benedictine
Non-Louisvillians think that benedictine is a drink, but in Louisville we know it's a cucumber-onion filling for finger sandwiches named for caterer Jenny Benedict, who owned a sandwich shop downtown in the early part of the century.

Though the cream cheese is always flavored with cucumber and onion, the form of the vegetables varies with the cook's taste. Some people add cucumber chunks and make hearty sandwiches, others add only the juice to make a delicate spread. Below is a typical recipe. In the supermarkets, you'll often see benedictine tinted with green food coloring.

8 ounces cream cheese
1 teaspoon finely grated onion (grated on a hand grater, not in a food processor)
2 tablespoons juice squeezed from grated cucumber
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Let cream cheese stand in a medium-size bowl at room temperature. Grate onion on the small side of a hand grater so that it is nearly pureed. Add to cream cheese. Peel cucumber and grate on the large side of a hand grater. Place in a clean tea towel and twist the towel to squeeze the juice from the pulp. Add juice to cream cheese along with salt and cayenne. Beat well.

Add more cucumber juice as desired to reach a spreading consistency. (A thinner mixture makes a good dip for vegetables and crackers.)


Hot Brown sandwiches
Hot brown sandwiches are rich, open faced hot turkey sandwiches with bacon that are the signature dish of one of Louisville's historic hotels, the Brown.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup flour
3 to 3 1/2 cups milk
1 beaten egg
6 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons whipped cream
Salt and pepper to taste
Slices of roast turkey
8 to 12 slices toast (trimmed of crusts)
8 to 12 slices cooked bacon

Melt butter and add flour, stirring with a whisk or spoon to make a thick roux. Add milk gradually and whisk to blend completely before adding more. As the sauce thins you can add milk more quickly. Bring to a boil. Beat a little of the hot mixture with the egg. Remove sauce from heat and beat in the egg mixture. Add cheese and stir. Fold in whipped cream. Season to taste.

For each Hot Brown, place 2 slices of toast on a flameproof dish. Cover with a liberal amount of turkey. Pour a generous amount of sauce over the turkey and broil about 6 inches from the heat until the cheese sauce begins to bubble. Sprinkle with additional Parmesan cheese. Place dish under broiler until sauce is speckled brown and bubbly.

Remove from broiler and top with a 2 pieces of bacon. Garnish with tomato slices, if desired. Serves 4 to 6.


Beer cheese
Beer cheese is an easy and distinctive cheese spread that became famous as bar food in Kentucky. It's not subtle: serve it with stronger flavors, like rustic wheat crackers or party rye bread.

1 pound sharp Cheddar cheese
4 ounces blue cheese
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup beer
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons wine vinegar
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

Grate cheddar cheese. Combine all ingredients and blend in a blender 1/2-batch at a time or in a food processor all at once. Should be very smooth.

Makes 2 to 3 cups.


Mint julep for one
Crushed ice
2 jiggers bourbon
1 jigger minted simple syrup (recipe follows)
Fresh mint sprig

Fill a julep cup or glass full of crushed ice. Pour bourbon and syrup over the ice. Stir. Stick a fresh sprig of mint in the top of the cup and serve.

Makes 1 very potent serving.

To make more juleps: Combine 1 pint bourbon and 1/2 pint minted simple syrup (recipe follows). Chill in the refrigerator overnight, or until needed. Fill the julep cups with crushed ice. Pour in the bourbon-mint syrup. Add the mint decoration and serve immediately. Makes about 5 juleps.

Simple syrup
1 cup cold water
2 cups sugar
6 mint sprigs

Boil the sugar and water for 5 minutes. Cool. Add the mint leaves. Let syrup "brew'' overnight or for 12 hours. Stir the syrup a couple of times and strain through a fine sieve or cheesecloth to remove mint. Makes 1/2 pint. Recipe can be doubled.


Boil-baked country ham
1 country ham
Water to cover
1 cup vinegar
1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, divided
Whole cloves
1/4 cup dry mustard
2 tablespoons cornmeal

Three days before serving, in a large roaster or stockpot, soak the ham overnight in enough cold water to cover. In the morning remove the ham, place in a sink and scrub with a brush under running water until it has been cleaned of any debris. Wash the roaster or stockpot, place the ham in it and cover with water.

Add vinegar and 1 cup of the brown sugar to ham water. Bring to a boil. Immediately reduce heat to low. Simmer 20 minutes per pound for an older ham, 15 to 18 minutes per pound for a quick-aged ham, or until the small bone in the hock can be pulled out with the fingers. Let cool in cooking water overnight.

Place cooked ham on a rack to drain. Trim fat to about 1/2-inch thickness, score and stud with cloves. Mix dry mustard, the remaining 1/2 cup brown sugar and cornmeal. Apply uniformly over ham. Place ham on a rack in an open baking pan. Bake in a 375- degree oven 20 to 30 minutes or until evenly browned. Remove from oven and cool on a rack.

Refrigerate overnight before serving. Slice paper-thin. Serve on beaten biscuits or miniature hamburger buns.


Cheesy grits casserole
6 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups grits
2 cups grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, cut into pieces
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Paprika

Butter a shallow 4-quart casserole.

Bring water and salt to a boil in a large heavy saucepan over high heat. Gradually add grits, stirring rapidly to prevent lumping. Cook until very thick, about 10 or 15 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter and 1 1/2 cups cheese. Beat eggs well, then beat in milk and stir into hot grits along wtih minced garlic and cayenne pepper. Taste for salt and add it if you like. Pour into prepared casserole. (Dish can be prepared 1 day ahead to this point and refrigerated).

Sprinkle remaining cheese and paprika over top. Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees. Serves 10 to 12. Grits may be frozen.


Hart County burgoo
Burgoo starts out stewlike but should be stirred and cooked enough that it's nearly homogeneous -- almost a gravy -- when you finish. If it's got big chunks of meat and vegetables, it's not burgoo.

At the annual barbecue festival in Owensboro, Ky., participants stir huge cauldrons of burgoo with a rake -- they have to stand on chairs to reach into the pots and they work in shifts so the stirring is almost constant.

2 pounds pork shank
2 pounds veal shank
2 pounds beef shank
2 pounds breast of lamb
1 4-pound hen
8 quarts cold water
1 1/2 pounds potatoes
1 1/2 pounds onions
1 bunch carrots, diced
2 green peppers, diced
2 cups chopped cabbage
1 quart tomato puree
2 cups whole kernel corn, fresh or canned
2 pods red pepper
2 cups diced okra
2 cups lima beans
1 cup diced celery
Salt and cayenne, to taste
Tabasco, to taste
A-1 sauce, to taste
Worcestershire sauce, to taste
Chopped parsley for garnish

Put all the meat in cold water in a 4-gallon or larger pot and bring slowly to a boil. Simmer until the meat is tender enough to fall from the bones. Lift the meat out of the stock. Cool and chop up the meat, discarding skin, bones, fat and other scraps.

Peel and dice potatoes and onions. Return meat to stock and add potatoes and onions. Add remaining vegetables. Allow to simmer until thick, stirring often. The vegetables should break up almost entirely, and the burgoo should be very thick, but still soupy. It can take up to 10 hours in all to cook.

Add seasonings to taste, continuing until the burgoo is almost done, approximately 10 hours in all. Pull out the pepper pods if you can find them. Add chopped parsley just before serving. Makes 3 gallons.

Note: Stir frequently with a long-handled spoon or paddle during the first part of the cooking and almost constantly after it gets thick.


Horse race pie
Chocolate chips and nuts are an inspired combination and the pie is traditionally served at Derby.

1 9-inch unbaked pie shell
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons bourbon or 2 teaspoons vanilla
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup semisweet chocolate morsels
Whipped cream

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat eggs briefly. Add sugar, butter, bourbon and cornstarch until well blended but not foamy. Pour nuts and morsels into pie shell. Pour egg mixture over the top. Bake 45 minutes. Cool 1 hour. Best if served warm with whipped cream. Serves 6 to 8.